New bridge to cross Grand Canal

VENICE, Italy, July 15 (UPI) -- Venice, Italy's famed Grand Canal is about to get its first new bridge in several hundred years.

The bridge, designed by Santiago Calatrava of Spain, is to link the train station with a parking lot.

The canal is to be closed to traffic for five nights between late July and Aug. 12, while pieces of the structure are floated into place, Ansa, the Italian news agency, reported. They will go under the city's most famous bridge, the Rialto.

Riveting the pieces together is expected to take weeks or months, but Calatrava said he believes the bridge will be completed by the end of the year.

Calatrava, known for his modernistic and sometimes playful work, called the project "an extraordinary and wonderful adventure." He dismissed fears that the bridge may be too heavy for the canal banks, saying it is anchored in solid earth.